SeaWorld whales to get bigger tanks

Theme park, hit hard by Blackfish controversy, also pledges $10M for whale research

SeaWorld Entertainment, which has been battling growing negative publicity over its killer whale population, said Friday it will build significantly larger tanks at its three marine parks, beginning with San Diego.

The move comes in the same week that the theme park company has seen its stock price plunge, following a disappointing quarterly earnings report and an acknowledgement from executives that revenue and attendance have suffered, in part, from fallout from the critical documentary, “Blackfish.”

The new initiative, which it has dubbed Blue World Project, is expected to cost the company several hundred million dollars across its three parks in San Diego, Orlando and San Antonio and will represent SeaWorld’s single biggest investment in the parks, said SeaWorld Chief Executive Jim Atchison.

It also reinforces the company’s commitment to spotlighting its star attraction, the killer whales.

“We will spend more building these habitats than we have spent building some of our parks,” he said.

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The first of the new environments will be built at SeaWorld San Diego, where the killer whale habitat will have a total water volume of 10 million gallons, nearly double the current size. A new, enlarged tank, which will be located where the current Shamu underwater viewing pool is, will have a maximum depth of 50 feet, a surface area of nearly 1.5 acres and is planned to be more than 350 feet in length. The new environment will also have viewing windows below water level exceeding 40 feet in height.

Among the features will be a rapid current that will allow the whales to swim against moving water.

“Through up-close and personal encounters, the new environment will transform how visitors experience killer whales,” Atchison said. “Our guests will be able to walk alongside the whales as if they were on shore, watch them interact at the depths found in the ocean, or a birds-eye view from above.”

Site plan for new killer whale environment. Darker blue area on the right is where the new, enlarged tank will be. That is where the current Shamu underwater viewing pool is.
— Courtesy of SeaWorld

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The company plans to begin construction on the new tank at the San Diego park in 2015 and open it to the public by 2018. No timeline was provided for the other parks.

In addition to the new construction, SeaWorld has committed $10 million in matching funds focused on threats to killer whales in the wild, and it has formed an advisory panel of experts, including the director of Conservation and Biological Research for the National Marine Mammal Foundation, to work with it on the project. The panel, SeaWorld said, will focus on the “creation of an environment that maximizes the health and well-being of the animals.”

SeaWorld’s latest move isn’t likely to blunt criticism from the company’s harshest critics. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals issued a statement saying the enlarged tanks will not help salvage the company.

“This is a desperate drop-in-the-bucket move to try to turn back the hands of time at a time when people understand the suffering of captive orcas, and it will not save the company,” said PETA Foundation Director of Animal Law Jared Goodman. “What could save it would be the recognition that it needs not to make larger tanks but to turn the orcas out in seaside sanctuaries so that they can feel and experience the ocean again, hear their families, and one day be reunited with them. A bigger prison is still a prison.”